Kalyanaraman (1979 film)

Kalyanaraman
Poster
Directed by	G. N. Rangarajan
Produced by	Meena Panju Arunachalam
Written by	Panchu Arunachalam
Starring	Kamal Haasan Sridevi
Music by	Ilaiyaraaja
Cinematography	N. K. Viswanathan
Edited by	K. R. Ramalingam
Production company	P. A. Art Productions
Distributed by	P. A. Art Productions
Release date	6 July 1979
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	₹90 lakh

Kalyanaraman is a Tamil language film starring Kamal Haasan in the lead role of the protagonist. The film was a blockbuster and completed a 140-day run at the box office. Six years later, a sequel was made titled Japanil Kalyanaraman. The film was remade in Hindi as Ghazab with Dharmendra and in Kannada as Sriramachandra with V. Ravichandran.

Kalyanam (Kamal Haasan) is the naive and infantile son of a rich estate owner Chinnadurai ( V S Raghavan) and he is in love with Shenbagam (Sridevi), an ordinary estate worker. The estate manager (Major Sundarrajan) and his cohorts covertly plot to kill Chinnadurai and usurp the property from Kalyanam. Chinnadurai gets killed but before his death reveals to Kalyanam that he has a twin elder brother who lives with his mother in Madras. The manager and his henchmen befool Kalyanam and loot the estate with ease but eventually murder him by throwing him off a cliff when he discovers their true designs. Shenbagam who witnesses the murder turns mentally unstable. However Kalyanam is not finished entirely as his spectre contacts his twin brother Raman (the elder Kamal Haasan) and the rest of the story revolves around how they together seek to bring the perpetrators to justice.

According to Randor Guy of The Hindu wrote that the concept of Kalyanaraman was similar to Idhu Nijama (1948 film) (1948) written and directed by S. Balachander. The looks for ghost Kamal was designed by G. Janakiraman.

The music composed by Ilaiyaraaja. The song "Kadhal Vanthiruchu" is loosely based on "Lady in Black" by Uriah Heep.

Six years later, a sequel was made titled Japanil Kalyanaraman in 1985, it was the first ever sequel in Tamil cinema.